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Taped conversation leaked, Ford says he’s being ‘set up’

Trying to explain a taped phone conversation between himself and an HIV-positive man, Councillor Rob Ford says he feels “set up” by someone who doesn’t want him to be mayor.

“I said what I needed to say to get this person off the phone without provoking him,” Ford told reporters at a news conference Thursday. “I feared for my family.”

Coucillor and mayoral candidate Rob Ford talks to the media about allegations that he offered to help Dieter Doneit-Henderson obtain an addictive pain medication. Ford says he was just trying to keep his family safe and get the caller off the phone. (TANNIS TOOHEY / TORONTO STAR)

In the June 4 recording, Dieter Doneit-Henderson, who also has the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia, asks Ford to get him the powerful painkiller OxyContin on the street. Ford seems to entertain the request.

“Why don’t you go on the street and score it?” Mr. Ford can be heard saying on the tape.

“Leave this with me . . . I have no idea. I don’t know any drug dealers at all . . . I’ll bet my life I won’t be able to help you out.”

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The excerpts, which are preceded by more than 38 minutes of talk in which Ford sympathizes with Doneit-Henderson’s problems finding a doctor, have “been taken out of context,” the councillor said.

Doneit-Henderson gave the Star access to the recording June 5. “He threw me for a real loop,” Ford said at the time. “I felt bad for the guy. Of course I’m not going to go out and buy drugs for the guy . . . I think I was panicking . . . I didn’t know what to do.”

The Star made a judgment not to publish.

On Thursday, after the Toronto Sun published excerpts of the call, Ford said the interactions with Doneit-Henderson had made him scared for his family, so he formally complained to police at 22 Division on Tuesday.

In an interview Wednesday night, Doneit-Henderson called the allegations against him absurd, insisting he was not trying to set up Ford and never threatened him.

“I have a shattered rib and fibromyalgia,” he said. “What am I going to do — throw myself at him?”

Doneit-Henderson added he has also contacted police to discuss what he feels is threatening behaviour from the Ford team.

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The saga started in early May, when Doneit-Henderson called the Star about disparaging comments Ford had made in 2006 about people who get AIDS.

During an interview about his past comments, Ford agreed to talk to Doneit-Henderson on the phone, but then insisted on driving to the man’s apartment to apologize in person. He told him: “I feel hurt if I insulted you in any way.”

Doneit-Henderson was thrilled with Ford’s apology and pledged to work on the Etobicoke councillor’s campaign team.

But the relationship soured over the Ford family’s efforts to help Doneit-Henderson and his husband, Colville, find a doctor. Both HIV-positive with other health conditions, they have a long list of drugs they were prescribed by a former doctor in Ottawa.

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